On April 22, Law School faculty sent an email to students containing a statement outlining their thoughts on recent events. The letter represents their own individual opinions and was written expressly for law students.

On April 22, Columbia Law School students received an email from Professors James Liebman and Avery Katz sharing a letter from law faculty. The statement follows suit with other prominent law schools, including Harvard, Yale, and NYU.

In the email, Katz and Liebman expressly state that the letter’s intended audience is the Law School’s student body. “Were we addressing other audiences, any one of us might have written differently,” they wrote. Upon request for further comment, Katz reiterated this sentiment to Bwog.

The letter’s signatories, while “free individuals” that disagree on the principles, laws, and tactics which have “roiled” the University, are “united in [their] desire to seize the opportunity this challenging moment presents to consider how the University can better serve its mission of free academic research, teaching, and public problem-solving.” Despite their “profound” disagreements, Law School faculty hope to pursue the good of the Law School, the University, the nation, and the world. 

The letter outlined seven principles affirmed by the undersigned full-time and emeritus faculty. These principles include the “rule of law,” the due process of law before any life, liberty, or property may be revoked, and respect for an independent judiciary. Signatories also affirm the protection of an independent legal profession against “arbitrary government action” as well as free expression and political activism.

Faculty also advocated for the freedom of students and faculty to travel across borders and places of learning without “arbitrary impediments, harassment, or deprivation of liberty.” Finally, they affirm constitutional democracy to uphold the aforementioned principles. The signatories “unite in opposition” to recent attacks on Columbia and other public-serving and higher education institutions more broadly, inviting students of the Law School to join them in strengthening the University and other institutions to better serve the public good. 

Letter sent from Columbia Law School Faculty to the Columbia Law School community on April 22, 2025 at 4:48 pm:

To our students:

We write in our individual capacities as Columbia Law School full-time and emeritus faculty who have or have had the privilege of teaching you.  We do so in the same spirit as our colleagues at Harvard, Yale, NYU, and other law schools who recently have addressed their students.

As free individuals, we disagree with each other with some frequency, including on the difficult questions of principle, law, fact, and tactics that recently have roiled our University. We are nonetheless united in our desire to seize the opportunity this challenging moment presents to consider how the University can better serve its mission of free academic research, teaching, and public problem-solving.

We also are together in our commitment to demonstrate the capacity of people separated by profound disagreement to jointly pursue the good of the Law School, the University, the nation, and the world at large. 

 Specifically, we together affirm the principles of:

1.   The rule of law

2.   Due process of law as a precondition for any deprivation of life, liberty, or property

3.   Respect for an independent judiciary

4.   Preservation of an independent legal profession against arbitrary government action

5.   Free expression and lawful, vigorous political advocacy and activism

6.   Freedom of students and faculty to travel across borders to and from places of learning

without arbitrary impediments, harassment, or deprivation of liberty

7.   Constitutional democracy as guarantor of all of these principles.

We unite in opposition to recent assaults on these principles and to a blanket assault on Columbia and other public-serving institutions.

At the same time, we commit ourselves to strengthening and improving this and other institutions and their capacity to serve a public that needs more and better from them. We invite you to join us in that endeavor.

Header via Bwog Archives